Mr. Hickerson recalled that the Committee of
Twelve had already had four meetings, and a fifth would take place next
Tuesday.2 The United States
had submitted a proposal calling for a merger of the International Atomic
Energy Commission and the Commission for [Page 498]Conventional Armaments.3 He had the feeling that the UK Representative
was inclined to drag his feet somewhat in the Committee, and sensed that the
reason for this attitude was the fear that the United States had some
objective beyond the procedural proposal. Mr.
Hickerson stated that the initiative in this matter last fall had
come from the White House and that at that time the Department had had no
plans whatever on this subject. Since then, the United States Government had
done considerable thinking on the general subject of regulation of armaments
and might in the future wish to submit substantive proposals on the subject.
Any substantive proposals, however, would be unrelated to this procedural
proposal, excepting that it would be easier to submit the proposals to a
combined Commission, since they involved both conventional arms and atomic
energy. The United States program was still very tentative, and no decisions
had been made as to the forum where the proposals would be made, or even
that the proposals would be made at all. Prior to making any proposals, the
United States would consult with the UK and with a number of other States,
and there would be full opportunity for exchange of ideas.

Mr. Steel stated that the British Foreign Office
had likewise done some planning on the substantive issue of regulation of
armaments and atomic energy, and had a number of ideas which likewise were
tentative. Mr. Steel stated that the UK planning
was designed primarily to wrest from the Soviet Union the propaganda
advantages of their peace movement. He asked whether the United States
program implied any change in fundamental attitudes towards the Soviet
Union.

Mr. Hickerson replied that while the United States
would be happy if its proposals were accepted by the Soviet Union, he did
not think that there was one chance in a thousand that the Soviet Union
would accept the proposals. Mr. Nash amended the
odds to one chance in a million. Mr. Hickerson
stated that the United States was in general thinking along the same lines
as the UK.

Mr. Steel indicated that on the subject of the
procedural proposal in the Committee of Twelve, the British view was
substantially the same as that of the United States. However, the British
did not assign a high priority to this question, and for this reason, there
had doubtless been delay in the UK Delegation securing its instructions.

The source text was initialed by John D.
Hickerson, Assistant Secretary of State for United Nations
Affairs.↩

Reference is to U.N. doc. A/AC.50/1, “General Views of the United
States with Respect to the Coordination of the work of the Atomic Energy
Commission and the Commission for Conventional Armaments,” a working
paper dated May 17, 1951, and submitted to the Committee of Twelve on
May 25; for text, see Department of State, Documents
on Disarmament, 1945–1959, 2 vols. (Washington, Government
Printing Office, 1960), vol. i, pp. 271-273.
For text of the statement by Frank C. Nash, Deputy U.S. Representative
before the Committee of Twelve on May 25 and the text of the working
paper, see Department of State Bulletin, June 18,
1951, pp. 991–993.↩